Product Description

'If I have an idealised still of my childhood, it's of standing amongst a small group of like-minded boys beside the player's tunnel as drizzle falls through the beam of the floodlights waiting to see which one of the team will come out to talk to the presenter...On an absolutely perfect occasion, on completion of his work in front of camera, the player might autograph my programme and possibly ruffle my hair and maybe even refer to me as mate. Sometimes on a Sunday I'd bike down to the ground and circle its silence, reliving the day before...' Last season Stoke City were unexpectedly propelled into the dizzy heights of the First Division, rare oxygen for a club that has been known to have three managers in one season. Stephen Foster, a diehard fan, who now lives in Norwich, follows the fortunes of his dire team as they struggle to retain their hold on this slippery peak of glory. From Icelandic owners, hopeless managers, hapless players, and a ground to rival the best of East German architecture, this is a marvellously mordant account of one fan's helpless obsession with a team that nearly always manages to let him down.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #226454 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

GUARDIAN
'Somewhere between Julian Barnes and Nick Hornby'

About the Author
Stephen Foster is the author of the novel STRIDES. He has one son - also a Stoke supporter - with whom he shares his troubles and match days.

Customer Reviews

She Stood Laughing - a book for EVERY football fan!
We’ve nearly all done it – driven that 300 mile round trip to see an away game, only for our team to, yet again, let us down with a pathetic show of footballing ineptitude. But for Stephen Foster, the author of the book, every game is an away game. In fact, some of the away games are closer than the home games! Foster is a Stoke City fan living in that ideally placed, centrally located metropolis of….. Norwich!
This story covers the 02/03 season of Stoke City’s first season back in the First Division for about 4 years. It tells of Fosters journeys with his son to the games and is an excellent insight into psyche of any football fan and football club. But you don’t have to be a Stoke fan to enjoy it. You’ll both laugh and cringe at the sense of familiarity that you feel with the circumstances described by Foster, no matter what club you support; puffer-jacket wearing chairmen, ‘honest’ strikers, last minute goals, first minute goals, biased referees, 4 managers in a year, etc, etc. If you know little or nothing about football (perhaps you call it 'soccer'), and think it's a glamorous, professionally run sport, then read on – you’ll be astounded!
‘Fever pitch’ this is not – it’s so much better than that. Nic Hormby’s idea of failure is not winning the championship, or loosing the final of the FA Cup. For Foster, his idea of glory is staying up on the last day of the season.
Funnily enough, I read ‘Fever Pitch’ just before I read ‘She Stood There Laughing’, and I’m glad I did. I’m a great believer of leaving the best ‘till last.

In a nutshell, ‘She Stood There Laughing’ is the best read I’ve had for a number of years. You’ll really laugh at some of the situations that the club get themselves into whilst knowing deep down that it could be just as well your club he was talking about. An essential and most enjoyable read.

It'd have been 5* if he'd put asterisks in the word Pulis
It's not often you pick up a football book and come across the line 'But, as the renowned French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan has it..' but then it's not often you pick up a football book as honest (to use the author's terminology) and refreshing as this.

Stephen Foster has written a book that easily recreates what it feels like to follow a less than successful football club through the course of a season. And this I feel, is it's major plus. For every disassociated, gloryfied Premiership 'Big Club' supporter we need to remember there is at least one, if not more, of us who follow the also-rans. For most of this book, it's easy to replace the words 'Stoke City' with the name of your own club and you'll know exactly what he's talking about. Poor performances on the pitch, bad management in the boardroom, it's all displayed here in it's earthy glory.

That said, the season the author writes about is not a typical lower division story. For although we can juxtapose our own club at many points, much of this book is uniquely Stoke-esque. The humour, the schadenfreude, the quintessentialness of the region comes across as he explains to the reader quite why he, and many more, believe that Stoke have punched below their weight for so long.

The dual dimension of the use of his son (football buddy, and also as counterpoint to explain quite why he feels the need to put himself through such drudgery.. often he asks of his son 'why are you still coming? you don't need to.' of course, his son says exactly what he needs to hear 'because, you fool, it's Stoke'. Clearly, especially in the season told in the book, the author feels the need to re-confirm exactly why he travels 400miles just for home games when the football on offer is such a poor standard when compared to a team 2 mins from his doorstep).

All in all, this is a fantastic read. A story of football as we, who watch in the lower leagues, know it. If you are a BIG CLUB supporter you'd do well to re-acquaint yourself. Who knows, you could be down here next.

Very funny, very readable.
This is a highly enjoyable, readable book and I ended up reading the whole thing the day I started it as it related closely to a lot of my own feelings and also described matches that I'd attended. All Stoke supporters (and possibly all supporters of any other team) will be able to appreciate the agonies of losing when you expected to win and winning when you expected to lose. The author certainly comes across as a committed supporter, travelling from Norwich every week to watch his team and also comes across as inteligent and well-informed, following the fortunes an misfortunes of Stoke City throughout the 2002/2003 season.
Unlike the typical football supporter, the author does seem to have a glass that is half-empty rather than half-full, always expecting his team to do badly. Even more strange for a Stoke supporter, he regards the underacheivement of recent years as normality and the acheivements of the 1930's, 40's, 50's and 70's as 'blips'. That said, he has a good knowledge of his subject and describes the travelling and the football very well.
Some of his criticisms of Tony Pulis' management do, however, seem a bit unjustified in the light of this seasons vastly improved performance, but he wouldn't be much of a football fan if he didn't complain about the state or the performances of the club, the players and the management would he?
In all it's a hugely enjoyable, engaging, readable book.